Deep-Sea Food Falls | A Tale of Wood and Bone

Chemosynthetic Oases | Deep Sea Food-Falls and Wood-Falls. The first 100 people to download Endel by clicking the link below will get a free week of audio experiences! https://app.adjust.com/b8wxub6?campai...

The degradation of food-falls at the bottom of the ocean can create partially chemosynthetic environments. In the case of sunken whale carcasses (whale falls), the supply of organic material supports an ecological succession of communities. But perhaps less well-documented than the scavengers at whale-falls are the creatures that rely on wood instead. When trees become uprooted by storms or ships capsize at sea, losing their buoyancy as the pressure of the ocean forces out any air trapped within, bits of wood sink to the ocean floor where they create fleeting oases of life (wood falls), including shipwrecks, like that of the Titanic. The scarcity of food in parts of the deep ocean creates an environment where very little goes to waste. The animal and microbial life that dwells down here has become resourceful, able to make the most of even unexpected resources. So it comes as no surprise that the deep ocean hosts complex biological communities adapted to thrive on this sunken wood.

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Part 1 - Hydrothermal Vents:    • Hydrothermal Vents | Oases in the Dee...  
Part 2 - Cold-seep Environments:    • The Peculiar Life of Cold Seeps  

00:00 - Introduction to Deep-Sea Food Falls
01:45 - Whale-Falls - Partial Chemosynthetic Oases
02:18 - Whale-Falls - The Mobile Scavenger Stage
02:35 - Whale-Falls - The Enrichment Opportunist Stage
02:53 - Whale-Falls - The Sulfophilic Stage
04:05 - Whale-Falls - Ecological Stepping Stones
05:27 - Other Food-Fall Events
06:06 - Elasmobranch Food-Fall Events
07:20 - Wood-Falls - Origins and Formation
08:54 - Wood-Fall Specialists - Xylophaga Bivalves
10:07 - Wood-Fall Specialists - Giant Shipworm
10:24 - Wood-Fall Specialists - Munidopsis Yeti Crabs
11:01 - Wood-Falls - Terrestrial Deadwood Communities
11:45 - Wood-Falls - Endosymbiotic and Chemosynthetic Bacteria
13:03 - Wood-Falls - Bathymodiolus Mussels
14:00 - Wood-Falls - Ecological Stepping Stones
15:02 - Shipwrecks - Wreck of Whaling Brig Industry
16:06 - Shipwrecks - Wreck of Endurance
17:31 - Shipwrecks - Colonisers of Endurance
18:53 - Shipwrecks - Wreck of SS Bluefields and U-576
19:36 - Shipwrecks - Wreck of RMS Titanic
20:12. -Conclusion

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Written, Narrated and Edited by Leo Richards

I do not own any of the footage. I write the script, narrate, and edit what footage I can find, which is allowed due to YouTube's 'Fair Use' policy as these films are transformative and for educational purposes. Footage used belongs to the incredible marine conservation societies of Schmidt Ocean Institute, MBARI, WHOI and the Ocean Exploration Institute, along with various other YouTube sources. Most footage is used with explicit permission of the copyright owner. In cases where I cannot contact the owner or have not received a reply, I use certain clips in accordance with the Fair Use policy.

Music Used:

Snake Island by Piotr Hummel
The Peruvian Protest by Max H
Serenity by Max H
Sleeper Valley (Alternative Version) by Ardie Son
Aries by Laurel Violet
Redefined (Reworked) by Christopher Galovan
Silent Transmission by Tamuz Dekel
Shallow Water by Yehezkel Raz
When The Sunrise by Yehezkel Raz

#deepsea #wildlife #nature #documentary #ocean #marinebiology #science #biology

Bibliography:

Jones, B., 2022. The bizarre deep-sea creatures living on the Endurance shipwreck. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/202...

McClain, C. and Barry, J., 2014. Beta-diversity on deep-sea wood falls reflects gradients in energy availability. Biology Letters, 10(4), p.20140129.

McClain, C., 2022. A Lonely Tree Far From Home Brings New Life to the Ocean Deep: A Narrative in Five Acts | Deep Sea News. [online] Deep Sea News | All the news on the Earth's largest environment. Available at: https://www.deepseanews.com/2012/04/a...

McClain, C., 2022. Will My Wood Research Be Poplar? | Deep Sea News. [online] Deep Sea News | All the news on the Earth's largest environment. Available at: https://www.deepseanews.com/2014/01/w...

McClain, C., 2022. Wood, It’s What’s For Dinner | Deep Sea News. [online] Deep Sea News | All the news on the Earth's largest environment. Available at: https://www.deepseanews.com/2009/11/w...

Parsons, J., 2022. Amazing marine life now covers the 107-year-old Endurance shipwreck. [online] Metro. Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/09/amazin...